Mopac Expwy : Rushhour Parking Garage

[ScoPro]

We would not need any more expressways, nor would we be sitting on Mopac, if every single driver who uses them would learn how to drive properly.
As it stands, it doesn't take very many numbnut drivers to screw up the traffic flow.

How many time have you hit stop & go traffic on Austin expressways, only to see that there was no wreck or stalled cars to impede said traffic?

Some airheads should just stay off the roads and take the bus or a cab.

[TexasHorseLady]

There are, indeed, certain stretches where traffic seems to slow down on a daily basis at certain times for no obvious reason. Round Rock has one of those - while it puzzles the heck out of me, I'm pretty sure there IS some reason that I'm not seeing, perhaps having to do with something as subtle as the slope of the roadway there or how the sun hits at a particular time of day that acts subliminally on drivers (most of them, in fact) to make them feel the need to slow down. Which creates a new traffic flow (and I seem to recall recurrent rants that people shouldn't insist on driving the speed limit if it's slower than the flow of traffic but should adjust themselves willingly to those who wish to speed if the majority does so, so shouldn't the same apply when the flow of traffic is slower than the speed limit?).

[ScoPro]

Yes, the north bound I-35 approach to RR at the 620 exit is one of those slow down spots.

Personal anecdote:

A couple years ago we were coming up to that spot in the afternoon rush hour @ 50 mph, when a few cars ahead, a mattress flew way up & off a pickup truck. Dozens of cars scattered like a bunch of startled cockroaches (including me).
How in heck nobody collided with anybody else is a real mystery - or miracle.

As far as the slowdowns go, many of them are caused by drivers improperly changing lanes, entering & exiting the expressway, or simply not driving with the flow of the heavy traffic. When ONE driver hits their brakes for whatever reason & slows down, it inevitably causes a chain reaction behind them.

Not to mention the rubbernecking & gawking at stalled cars, cops on the side of the road, & fenderbenders.

Funniest slowdown I ever saw years ago before N 183 was an expressway, was while driving south by the DPS office (now on the frontage road) in the Anderson Mill area. Seems that the rookie troopers were having a radar gun class up on the curb...and all at once about a dozen of them raised their radar guns in our direction. All the brake lights in front of me lit up instantly like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. I laughed all the way home.

[AmberAzeneth]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Two things. One, here, it's not "The Mopac", it's Mopac. Did you come to Houston by way of California, perchance?

Two, you live in Houston, Land of Roads. We're talking about Austin, which is not and hopefully never will be Houston. People who like the kind of environment Houston has live (or should live) in Houston; the same for Austin. They are different cities with different populations and different souls.

I love Austin. My wife and kids and I practically live there in the summertime. No, I did not come from California. I didn't mean to offend by calling it "The Mopac". That is just how I have always referred to the Mopac Expressway in my 20 years of traveling back and forth between Austin and Houston. Also, THL, like Unclemeat has already stated, Austin and Houston are starting to have alot in common, especially the lack of proper freeways. For a metro Austin's size, it can have some unbearable traffic jams. And I am not speaking about just peak driving hours either. For goodness sakes IH-35 gets congested on saturday and sunday evenings. Though Austin does not have near the traffic issues Houston has, you can not deny it does have serious enough traffic problems that do need to be addressed as soon as possible.